“If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

This quote is from the 1983 Regan administration publication “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. 25 years later and the situation no less bleak, the nation has seen a ever-changing menu of top-down approaches to educational reform including increased standardized testing, longer school hours, eliminating recess and tracking struggling students. In the years since this quote was written, schools have been farmed out to businessmen and philanthropists who regard the business of managing a school in the same way that they manage a Fortune 500 company, and whose lavish donations, while generous, often gloss over the fact that these men who have taken an active role in affecting educational change, have little to no understanding of the complexities involved in teaching and learning, or of the many other realities impacting urban students lives and their attitudes towards school.

The government’s latest mandate, No Child Left Behind requires that all children be performing above average on standardized tests by the year 2014. How will this be accomplished? By draining classrooms of any engaging, experiential or project-based learning, lengthening school days and years and using classroom time exclusively to teach to the tests, on whose results the salaries, careers and futures of some of our most dedicated teachers are pinned.

Politicians promise all sorts of things on the campaign trail, but it’s a rare breed of politician that follows through on their promises at all, let alone before they’re even elected. Enter Tom Perriello, a Democrat running a unique campaign in Virginia’s solidly red 5th congressional district.

Perriello has instituted a community service initiative that requires campaign staffers and volunteers to donate ten percent of their time to the community. He calls this “volunteer tithing,” after the Christian practice of donating a tenth of one’s income to the church. According to Jessica Barba, Perriello’s Communications Director, “Tom doesn’t shy away from talking about his faith like some Democrats,” and the aegis for the volunteer tithing, “comes from his deeply held Catholic beliefs. Tom is serious about the culture of service, and is running a campaign as a reformer who is willing to put his money where his mouth is.”

By all accounts, he has. At press time, according to the campaign website, staffers and volunteers have donated 333 service hours around the district. Teams of around five volunteers have gone to Habitat for Humanity builds, soup kitchens, senior centers, and helped teach children literacy. The community response has been strong. “At first people didn’t really understand who we were or what we were doing,” said Barba, “but it didn’t take long for them to be genuinely appreciative. We now have people actually coming up and suggesting places for us to volunteer.”

Not only are people taking notice, but the message appears to be working. Virginia’s 5th (which includes Charlottesville and Danville) voted for George Bush by a 13% margin in 2004. Notice as well that Perriello’s opponent Virgil Goode won by a staggering 28% margin that year, and by 19% in 2006. While Perriello undeniably faces an uphill battle, his volunteer efforts have not gone unnoticed in a district that places a large premium on faith-based community service. They haven’t gone unnoticed in the polls either; earlier this month the Cook Political Report changed the district from “solidly Republican” to ”likely Republican (see here).”

This does not come as a shock to Barba. “Most people are amazed by what we’re doing,” she said. “The [volunteer tithing] has brought the campaign and its staffers to places where most campaigns never go. And because time is such a valuable commodity in political campaigns, people know we really mean it. Most people are amazed and thankful.”

Should Perriello pull off the upset victory, his commitment to community service would certainly manifest itself in policy decisions and potential legislation. According to Barba, he strongly supports additional funding for service organizations such as as Americorps and the Peace Corps, and he would do what he could to inculcate a culture of giving back among his constituents and the country at large. Here’s to hoping he succeeds and that many more politicians follow suit.

The above article can also be found on Huffington Post.

“If you had to rebuild your city, how would you rebuild it?” Almost three years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is still recovering from a storm that destroyed 80% of the city. While many are still struggling, New Orleans has also attracted thousands of young people from diverse backgrounds, who are passionate about rebuilding an American City in a more equitable way. The city is attracting innovators from top schools like Harvard & Stanford young creative professionals from all over the world.

NOLAYURP, an organization based in New Orleans, and CEOs for Cities are hosting a conference called Urban Next Summit from July 24th – 25th. They’re expecting around 150 young leaders from around the country to help answer questions such as “what makes a city a magnet for passionate young people?” and “how can a city engage this talent and hold onto them for the future?”

Conference attendees will have the opportunity to hear from distinguished speakers, learn about innovative strategies for cities and explore New Orleans is an insider. If interested, you can apply to be an attendee by clicking here. Find out more information by visiting nolayurp.org.

If young innovators around the world had a chance to rebuild a city, what would it look like? I would make all the houses green and move all the roads underground. Ahhh, that would be nice!

ADB and Behance are big fans of the work and ideas that have come from Sustinable South Bronx. Talk about using innovation to break the rules and expectations, they’ve put the Bronx on the Green map, destroying the notion of trickle down “elitist” environmentalism. So we’re extremely excited that they’ll be creating a new consultancy to take their methods on Greening the Ghetto national, and will be presenting (and asking for your thoughts on) the initiative at Make Good Ideas Happen.

Their mission:

Environmental Justice through innovative, economically sustainable projects that are informed by community needs.

Founded in 2001 by life-long South Bronx resident, Dr. Majora Carter, SSBx also addresses land-use, energy, transportation, water & waste policy, and education to advance the environmental and economic rebirth of the South Bronx, and inspire solutions in areas like it across the nation and around the world.

What they do:

Everything from Green Roof Installation to the Bronx Greenway project, even Green Collar Job Training. A small locally based non-profit environmental justice solutions corporation that has an international reputation for innovation and foresight.

What they will be presenting

Bronx Takeover-Creating a New Initiative and Consultancy to Green the Nation’s Ghettos.

Being a small org with a big rep has made it hard for SSBx to find funding. So founder, Dr. Majora Carter, is launching a private consulting firm that will guide municipalities, educational institutions, foundations, and other communities towards a path that unlocks their own green-collar potential in ways that benefit everyone. A near blank slate, come help SSBX determine what the new face of urban sustainability and justice will look like.

This consultancy will offer survey tools and services for government, community, and corporate leaders to get a clear picture of their assets and deficits, and then ongoing reporting and advice that will bridge those gaps and shine a light to a sustainable future.

A woman after our own hearts. If the potential isn’t inspiring enough, this video of Dr. Carter at on of the most inspiring talks we’ve seen at TED should do it.

If you’d like to help make SSBX’s ideas happen, check out the Make Good Ideas Happen event or Internet Week site and stop by the roof of The Delancey on June 9th at 7 pm.

City Year, StartingBloc and Sustainable South Bronx will present ideas they are pursuing to change the world. Bring your idealism, and leave behind Action Steps with resources, connections, and next steps to help these non-profits make their ideas happen. Amazing people, good drinks, and a nice buzz from doing good – what more could you ask for?

RSVP at www.behance.com/events Can’t make the event? Drop us a line if you want to help anyway.

So, remember Rockefeller Brothers Fund President, Stephen Heintz? Well one guy spent a half hour of our media briefing challenging Heintz’ assertion that “no major social change has come from the for-profit sector.” Paul Herman, founder and CEO of a new company called HIP Investor (at the conference as Press writing for Fast Company Magazine), disagreed.

I think it is almost instinctive to most of us young’ins that social change can be profitable, but this is actually a radically new idea in the investment community when considering investment strategies (it is not part of a single major foundation’s investment strategy, according to Heintz) and is not part of mainstream financial investment discourse, to be sure. It is a new force of change: the mission-driven investment movement.

Immediately, I thought about the example of a profitable venture that produced drastic social change during my lifetime: the internet. The internet has revolutionized the world while at the same time resulting in massive profit. It is the single most influential factor in globalization and the “flattening of the world.” Yet, the internet serves as the basis for infinite profitable ventures.

Starting in the 90s, the concept of micro-lending took off. With the internet, so-called hybrid models of for-profit ventures that produce social good and particularly, using web technology to conduct microlending, have emerged. Check out a few examples:

• kiva.org = “Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.”
• prosper.com = “Prosper is an online community for lending and borrowing money.”
• microplace.org = “Invest wisely. End poverty. At MicroPlace, you can make investments that reach millions of hard-working poor people worldwide.”
• zopa.com = “The best rates. The nicest people. At Zopa, members who invest help members who borrow.”

I think there are many more examples of for profit ventures and CSR programs that can produce social good, but for now I will just give a shout out to HIP…

What is HIP and what does their model entail? (Excerpts from their website) www.HIPinvestor.com

HIP Investor is a team of experts in sustainable and profitable growth. Together with their partner the Social Venture Technology Group, HIP + SVT have developed a unique HIP framework to measure human, social and environmental impacts of products, processes and portfolios — and to measure the results. Founded on the premise that boosting net-positive human impact leads to even higher profit, HIP is using its innovative scorecard tool (link to this) to demonstrate how solving human problems can result from Human Impact + Profit.

Socially responsible investing is the fastest growing group of managed assets in the United States, growing more than 258% over the last ten years. More and more investors are looking for a way to align their values with their investments AND make a profit.

At the same time, 84% of global executives see the need to deliver both high investor returns and public good yet only 3% feel their companies are doing a good job at realizing their goal. Organizations around the world have an unfilled need about how to innovate to solve human problems, thereby creating positive human impact. This impact is measurable (e.g., customer, employee and supplier values) and drives sustainable, profitable growth.

HIP Investor is a leading expert in building this sustainable, profitable growth and helping both socially minded investors and global executives meet their goals for Human Impact + Profit simultaneously. Until the world’s $140 trillion in investments in all currencies are generating both Human Impact + Profit (HIP) simultaneously, they are underperforming. HIP Investor serves corporations and CEOs, entrepreneurs, and individual and institutional investors to realize their potential to be HIP.

Can social change be “HIP”, or profitable? Know of any examples where profit meets human impact? Can the for-profit sector be responsible for a social revolution? Why do we even need the non-profit sector? What do you think?

I feel privileged and humbled by my day yesterday representing alldaybuffet at the Global Philanthropy Forum in Redwood City, CA. The Global Philanthropy Forum, or “GPF,” is a gathering of 500 philanthropists, social investors, and social entrepreneurs who convene to learn about current trends in global affairs and philanthropy, to exchange ideas, and to collaborate in addressing some of the world’s greatest challenges.

This year GPF focused on “Human Security, Human Rights, and the Shared Responsibility to Protect: A Conversation with Elders and Emerging Leaders.” I’m using the ADB blog forum to bring this important conversation back to the next generation of leaders, you guys, and ask you all some questions, share some ideas, and provide inspiration on how we, as a group of young individuals, can contribute to solving some of the greatest challenges we’ll face in the 21st Century.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be submitting a series of short pieces that will range from the substantive themes covered at the conference, current trends and questions about the direction of philanthropy, inspiring projects and stories of individual social entrepreneurs who participated in the gathering, and some ideas of my own. My hope is to bring you all into this conversation and solicit your feedback on how our community can get involved.

Issue #1:

It seems appropriate, for my first in this series of posts, to elaborate on the theme of this year’s conference: Human Security, Human Rights, and the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine (R2P). Let’s start with some definitions (with a little help from Wikipedia):

The Responsibility to Protect:
Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a recently developed concept in international relations that represents a major turning point away from the primacy of state sovereignty over its internal affairs when there is evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, or other heinous crimes against civilians. The principles of R2P state that if a particular state is unwilling or unable to carry out its responsibility to prevent such abuses, that responsibility must be transferred to the international community, which must attempt to solve problems initially via peaceful means (such as diplomatic pressure, dialogue, even sanctions) and then, as a last resort, through the use of military force.

While the R2P doctrine is still being debated in some circles that fear international intervention in the affairs of sovereign nations, it has won growing support from both government actors and especially, civil society advocates. The Doctrine represents a clear turning point in the development of international humanitarian law and affairs.

Human Security:
Human security refers to an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities. It challenges the traditional notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state. It looks into the factors that give rise to instability and incorporates diverse approaches to understanding forces leading to instability and promotes comprehensive solutions to promote long-term peace and security. Human security holds that a people-centered view of security is necessary for national, regional and global stability.

Interestingly, the concept emerged from a post-Cold War, multi-disciplinary understanding of security involving a number of research fields, including development studies, international relations, strategic studies, and human rights. During the cold war, security studies and policy looked at interactions between states and traditional government militarism. In a changing world where security threats come from state as well as non-state actors and where internal conflicts within countries are on the rise, a new paradigm for understanding peace and security is needed.

Human Rights:

Human Rights refer to the “basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled” and a “…recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world ”. Examples of rights and freedoms which are often thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, declaration was the first international legal effort to limit the behavior of states and press upon them duties to their citizens following the model of the rights-duty duality. The UDHR is now considered to be a central component of international customary law.

That said, here are some questions for you:
• What’s our role in promoting these concepts as young adults, primarily living in the United States or other parts of the “West”?
• Why do we as a community care to promote these principles?
• How can individuals contribute to such vast global agendas?
• Do we agree that we have a responsibility to protect civilians from genocide, conflict, and war crimes?
• How can we, as individuals, or perhaps young professionals outside of the international policy and law community, still contribute to promoting the objectives of human rights, human security, and protection of civilians?

Weighty? Well we’d like you to weigh in, respond, share ideas, concerns, and questions. I’ll be elaborating on these concepts in the coming days and how people across the world are creatively promoting the ideas enshrined in R2P, UDHR, and Human Security to make the world a more peaceful, just, and safe place for us and future generations.

Be back soon!

No more teachers, no more books, at least not the pre-Katrina kind. New Orleans had been known for having one of the most corrupt and failing school systems in the country. But it’s been two and a half years since the storm and despite difficulty, there has been new money allotted to schools, a purge within the system, and the implementation of a system focused on charter schools which is non-standardized and provides more teaching liberty and adaptability to cater to individual kids. With this, there has also come a slew of young and ambitious teachers, non-profits and those willing to leave the comfort of their towns and careers to help with potentially the largest educational overhaul in US history.

I strongly believe that we have a very short window of opportunity to achieve something historic and far-reaching in regards to public education in urban centers across this nation. For the first time in recent history, the resources, the politics, and for the most part, the talented people are all aligning to work together towards the common goal of providing an excellent public education for all children in New Orleans. Never before has an inner city educational system had the opportunity to reinvent itself and start over from scratch, correcting the wrongs of decades past.

That’s Mark Martin, who was kind enough to chat with alldaybuffet over e-mail and in-person about a new education project he’s working on in New Orleans– the following is a summary of our conversations. He’s the elementary school leader of the newly opened Langston Hughes Academy Charter School which has the goal of sending every student to college by preparing them for the best public and private high schools in the NOLA area. But Langston Hughes is also the first and flagship school in the larger organization NOLA 180—the first charter management organization in the nation with the specific mission to turn around failed public schools.

Within 3-5 years, we will take a core group of teachers and leaders from Langston Hughes Academy, our “incubator” school, and infuse them into a school determined to be failing by state accountability measures. We will re-charter this school under NOLA 180, and then this team will be charged to re-culture and turn around the failed school into a high-performing, successful public school.

Sound efficient? Maybe because it’s the brainchild of John Alford, a North Carolina A&T and Harvard business grad who decided to use his experience and expertise for good. It was his work establishing schools with KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) that made him an expert in education (he started with KIPP when they had 5 schools, they are now over 45 schools strong) but it was working in turnaround management with GM suppliers the greatly informed the inspiration for NOLA 180.

He realized that if businesses are failing, it’s a lot cheaper and saves a lot more hassle if you can get somebody there turned around than if you have to shut them down, go get another supplier or start another business. He wanted to turn that into a school model. Instead of having to disperse kids and disperse entire faculties when schools are failing, and shut them down, if you can just put in a core group of people who can get them turned around and headed in the right direction, then that saves a lot of trouble.

There are often only two options when a school is failing: one-leave it running with a possible state takeover that will change little, or two-shut it down and send everyone packing and out of luck. NOLA 180 offers an alternative, working with existing schools and with the state to turn them around–better than even starting new schools.

The KIPP model is to start new good schools, but it takes a long time. If you build a school that has a lot of really strong teachers and has this leadership pipeline, then every three or four years, you take out those teacher leaders, and a few administrators, put them in a failing school, re-culture it, get it headed in the right direction–that makes a lot more sense.

John won an Echoing Green grant to fund the idea and finally moved to New Orleans, early ’06 (he was asked to start the program before the storm, which delayed the plans). He started writing the charter and received approval in Feb ‘07 and the school opened its doors to about 110 students in August of ’07.

It’s a unique program that can work in New Orleans because, amazingly, over half of the schools re-opening are Charter schools, including Langston Hughes. It’s a big point of contention in the battle for the minds and school system of New Orleans.

New Orleans has relinquished control of a school system that had long failed it’s children in favor of a system of schools that are allowed to operate autonomously and with great accountability, doing what’s best for the kids within that specific school. In the past, too often schools have been plagued by uninspired tenured teachers and central office bureaucrats making decisions for schools without ever having actually set foot in those schools or having met the children, family, and staff that really determine what that school is about.

Where we have seen push back from community, for the most part, is where the community is uninformed about what charter schools are. The unions and others behind decades of failure want their influential positions back, and they have never been shy about charter-bashing in order to defeat our aim. But with our parents and families, they almost immediately know something about our school is going to be far different from the schools that many of them grew up in and in most cases, were failed by.

And being a charter allows much more freedom to deal with New Orleans’s unique situation. Many kids have been hopping around from school to school wherever they evacuated to (Texas, Baton Rouge) and some kids just did not go to school during the Katrina year at all. So to help, many of the high-performing schools are able to offer 50% more instructional time than traditional public schools.

Our kids go from 7:30 to 4:30 every day, so we have longer blocks of all the major subjects. And with the young kids, they’re not going to be as far behind, so we’re going to have a lot more enrichment type programs. Our goal is to expose them to a lot of things they’re not normally exposed to, like golf, tennis, the performing arts.

The great thing about starting our own thing is that we can do whatever’s right for the kids and we can pick and choose whatever curriculums we want. So I’ve actually been making all these school visits to see which curriculums are working, which are the easiest for teachers to implement, that get results.

New Orleans, more than any place in the country has a market-driven school system, for teachers, for students. There’s total choice. All the new charter schools are open enrollment so the kids can literally go to any school in the city that’s open enrollment, so if you’re not doing your job, you’re gonna lose kids.

But teaching in the Big Easy is not so easy, and comes with its own set of problems.

The thing about New Orleans schools, both as far as instructions and facilities, is that before the storm they were miserable. There was so much money being embezzled. For instance, the past president of the school board just got indicted for embezzling something like $100,000. And that was rampant.

But despite criticism over the relative inexperience of many teachers, the newness of these volunteers to the environment has definite advantages.

Most have a certain level of dedication and willingness to sacrifice that is unseen in a veteran teacher who has lost their dedication due to years of neglect from an nonsupporting and ineffective school administration or central office. The hope has remained constant despite the obstacles, and glimpses of progress and achievement constantly rain down over them giving them the drive and determination to constantly get better.

As with Alford, many of the newcomers are bringing with them new and innovative ways of thinking about New Orleans’s educational problems–as much informed by the world of education, as the world outside of it. And it’s the charter schools that Mark sees as the conduit for larger change.

One wonderful thing about having young, moldable, and able educators is that with a new system comes a very new and remarkably different way of “doing school,” and in a sense we need flexible people who are open to new ideas and new ways of thought to achieve this very entrepreneurial goal of reinventing public education in New Orleans.

We’re kind of borrowing best practices from other sectors too. For the most part, education in America hadn’t changed for the last hundred years. The classroom and the instruction looked the same, the students have changed a bit, but really the way education was done hadn’t changed a bit and it’s long overdue. There’s a danger with looking too much at business and saying lets run a school the way we run corporate America, but there are certain things we have to borrow. If business hadn’t constantly evolved over the last hundred years, we would have been left in the dark ages basically, so that’s kind of the way we look at education. It’s been left behind and we need to bring it into the 21st century, and charter schools are really the first schools that have been making a concerted effort to do that.

The process of rebuilding the education system of New Orleans is a big endeavor and an experiment for sure, one with a lot of weight.

The entire staff knows that the nation is awaiting our results, and many locally and nationally are hoping that we fail so that we can sink back into the old way of doing things, that allowed for this achievement gap in the first place.

And though ambitious and daunting, what they need now is help from willing people.

Human capital is the most important aspect of this movement, and we certainly do not have everyone we need to pull this off. Every single Langston Hughes Academy founding teacher left the comforts of their previous teaching positions or careers outside of the state of Louisiana to come and join the effort accomplish this historic feat. We need more people willing to take a risk, leave their comfort zone. We still have not reached the tipping point of achievement, but we are not too far from it. It’s still not too late to join this movement, but time and opportunity are slipping and we know we have none to waste in this effort.

But Mark has seen a positive response.

For the most part, the parents of New Orleans that I meet with are excited at the opportunity to finally provide their children with a great education without having to pay for it. I’ve had parents come to tears when they hear the degree of our academic program and dedication of our teachers, something they’ve never been able to afford to give their kids before, which can now be theirs for free. Despite the lingering doubts by some, many more initial skeptics have witnessed the good that charters have brought to New Orleans public education and are now supporting our efforts to grow the movement.

So what’s it like to be a part of this kind of project?

The work drives you. As long as our hours are, it fuels you and it keeps you going. I never intended to be in New Orleans, but it was just too great of an opportunity. I mean, we all kind of realize how much is at stake here. In a way, the eyes of the nation are on us in New Orleans, because it’s the first time you can actually rebuild an urban school system at scale. New Orleans is not a big school system, and so it’s really the first time in an urban setting that you can affect the whole thing by making these changes. And if we get it right, and we do what we think we can do in New Orleans, then the nation’s going to take notice and these school systems like in Atlanta that are not doing too hot but think they’re doing great, they’re going to realize that, ‘wow, we’re not doing what kids need.’ Our goal is to impact those systems by making a difference in New Orleans and doing what we’re doing.

And to those thinking about moving to New Orleans to teach, help with the rebuild, or even those just wanting to find more meaning for themselves and their skills.

If you are an educator or a socially-minded entrepreneur, now is the time and New Orleans is the place. There is no other opportunity in the nation to achieve so much with such a deserving group of citizens and young people. Regardless of age, race, political view or affiliation, this city is dying to get talented people into positions of influence.

Survey after survey informs us that finding meaning in one’s work far outweighs salary and status. The best part about New Orleans right now is that if you follow your passions and do what fuels you, you can find the latter two from above as well. The time to act however is now.

Mark is looking for talented teachers and staff who want to help with the movement, so if you or anyone you know of may be interested or able to help, you can search and apply for positions here or feel free to contact one of us at alldaybuffet or Mark directly at mmartin[at]nola180[dot]org.

i used my (not so) little black book to find a way to get in touch with the president, and over the past two months i have directly communicated with the office of the president of liberia (pretty cool right?)–but we have been going back and forth and the responses are a bit slow…but of course johnson-sirleaf and her staff are running a country (and doing a hell of a job of it), and victor is not a priority

most of my close friends know about my ‘dream job’ and have been trying help me figure out how to do this–Dr Marsha Lillie-Blanton (another really smart, and to-do person) offered me an invitation to an Africare gala in DC where the president would be honored…while i dont have a job, and the bank account is soon to be in the RED, i decided that a $40 round trip ticket on the Peter Pan bus would be worth the opportunity to meet the president or a staffer or a guard or SOMEONE that I could try to talk to…just to put a face to the emails they have been getting from me…so this past thursday i took all of the cash that i have (i lost my wallet 2 weeks ago and am still waiting for a replacement card)…and got on Peter Pan

…again, i don’t have a job, which means i dont have a business card…so i (hand)made 25 cards out of notecards…shady i know, but, you gotta do what you gotta do…

…so to make this already long story, only a little longer…i smooth talked my way in the VIP reception where the first lady, robert l. johnson, debra lee, jacques diouf, and michael eskew and president johnson-sirleaf were ‘thrown’ some back…and straight up chilln’…

…the president was outfitted with 8 secret service agents and one staffer…not easy to get to, i kind of hung around (alone…looking/feeling a bit like a pedophil) waiting for the perfect moment to pounce…

…i was freaking out, because suddenly i was feet from the president of liberia, someone that i had been reaching out to (with the help of a really great friend and their family) for two months…my dream was literally within reach…

…and this is what happened…

…what you do not see is when the secret service agent stands in front of me, physically blocking my access to the president and her staffer…

…i went all the way to DC…and i failed……did i really? i have lots of ideas of how else to get in touch with her…i could always email her office AGAIN…but i learned a lot…the most important of which was, with the help of a community you can do almost anything…while you are about to see me get rejected (it REALLY hurts everytime i watch this)…it was a rejection from the president of liberia!!

…i am feeling much hotter than i could have ever imagined…

Just chatted with the folks over at Blueprint Louisiana and we’re very impressed with what they are doing.

Blueprint Louisiana is a group of concerned business and community leaders and citizens like you that have banded together to push for vast improvements to our state. We need your help to inform candidates running for office this fall on how we can make meaningful changes and create a better quality of life for all.

Spend five minutes at this website to learn how you can make a difference to improve ethics in government, education, workforce development, health care and transportation. Help us change Louisiana into a state we can all be proud of…for more than just culture, food and music.

This is great. Not only do we need the bottom-up approach to create change in New Orleans, it’s great to see an organization focusing on changing New Orleans through politics. Perfect timing with the elections coming up not too far down the road. After talked to Wes and browsing their site, they are trying to change Louisiana through a blueprint they have created around 5 major areas:

#1: Adopt the Nation’s Best Ethics Laws
#2: Prepare Students for a Lifetime of Success
#3: Develop the Skilled Workforce We Need
#4: Provide First-Class Access to Health Care
#5: Build a Superior Transportation System

Blueprint has a couple of events coming up that we are def going to check out. Since releasing its reform agenda on July 31st, Blueprint Louisiana has received a strong showing of support from candidates across the state – including many from both sides of the political aisle. To learn more about Blueprint Louisiana and meet candidates and citizens who have endorsed the organization’s reform agenda, please join us at one of the following informal, hour-long gatherings in the New Orleans area.

Tuesday, September 18th @ 6 p.m.
New Orleans: Marriott Hotel
555 Canal Street
New Orleans, LA 70130

Wednesday, September 19th @ 9 a.m.
Northshore: Benedict’s Plantation
1144 N. Causeway Blvd.
Mandeville, LA 70471

Hope to see everyone there!

While looking into some education options, we came across Kaos Pilot, a school in Denmark that combines creativity, entrepreneurship and social innovation.

KaosPilot International is an entrepreneurial education for young entrepreneurs and project leaders with a creative edge and a global mind. The school is located in Aarhus, Denmark making up the homebase of the Danish KaosPilot education while also being the international network of KaosPilot schools and educational programs.

No doubt, you’ll find other educations working with entrepreneurship and innovation. However, what you probably won’t find is the coupling between the core disciplines project, process and business design and the cultural DNA forming the leitmotif of the school activities and decisions. From visions and pedagogical guidelines to client services. From projects and interior design, to the entrance examination and employment of new colleagues.

Hence, KaosPilot International is much more than an education. It’s a mindset. A competency environment for young, creative and social responsible people and change agents who wish to make a positive difference in society and shape the society of tomorrow.

Has anyone seen anything else out there like this?